Projectiles, drop bombs, shells, grenades and the like munitions which are used for explosively dispersing finely divided solid smoke and the like obscurant materials have in the past exhibited limited dispersion efficiency as a consequence of the extremely small size and type of the solid particulate smoke forming materials that are used. Finely divided solid particles of smoke forming materials such as aluminum flake, brass flakes, copper flakes and carbon flakes have a very low bulk density which limits the amount of material that could be charged into the volume limited projectile or the like container as well as the dispersion efficiency that is achieved with such small amounts of finely divided dry, solid particles in the charge. Moreover, certain of the solid particulate materials such as aluminum will ignite and "flash" when explosively dispersed.
Heretofore, attempts to address the problem of producing smoke forming compositions with increased bulk density and dispersion efficiency as well as reducing the "flashing" thereof have not proven to be entirely satisfactory. Mechanical compression of the finely divided smoke forming particles into a pellet or slug to increase the bulk density results in a reduction of the dispersion efficiency of the charge as well as adversely affecting the particle size distribution due to the agglomeration or welding of the particles. Alternatively, increasing the amount of explosive charge improves the dispersion efficiency, but the volume limitations of the projectile and the like containers reduces the amount of solid smoke forming particles that can then be used as well as increasing the danger of ignition or "flashing" of the particulate materials that are used.